


The Heavens Open

by yoshizora



Category: Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-27
Updated: 2018-05-27
Packaged: 2019-05-14 14:56:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14771813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yoshizora/pseuds/yoshizora
Summary: Patroka awakens a monster.





	The Heavens Open

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Plushienator](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Plushienator/gifts).



> thank you plushie for playing arms with me a bunch xoxo AND SORRY FOR ALL THE SLAPPING LMAO

Infiltrating the Titan is easy enough. Trekking through the cold to Theosoir is tedious at worst. Getting past the guards at the entrance to the capital is a joke.

Two outsiders, one with the threatening visage of a Blade wielding _four_ weapons, is enough to raise the alarms in the palace. But Tantal’s military is weak with stagnation and their population had become far too complacent with their strained peace that came with isolation; Patroka and Perdido blitz through the guards and walk right past startled and confused civilians like they own the place, taking their time as the Tantalese scramble to gather more soldiers to chase them off.

“Home sweet home,” Patroka says bitingly, eyeing the stalls and all the gloomy people with distaste. “Good to see this place is even more of a squalor than the last time I was here.”

Perdido looks to her questioningly. “You came from Tantal?”

“A long time ago.” She waves a hand, dismissive. “My old Driver was Tantalese. Akhos and I were born here, you could say. Well, whatever. Reminiscing over a couple dead people is a complete waste of time.”

“Yes. Of course.” Perdido nods. They’re nearing Theospiti Temple now, and are greeted by a line of soldiers with their weapons drawn and pointed at them. Patroka sighs.

“Halt! You will progress no further, trespassers!”

“Ugh, gimme a break.” She eyes the soldiers, counting them off. Six, seven… eight.

Eight of them, down on the ground in a matter of seconds, no match for Perdido’s frightening dexterity. They continue onwards into the ruins, down creaking stairs and past walls of stone blocks that threaten to crumble at the lightest touch.

A long, long time ago, she had heard faded stories of a certain Blade. Truth be told, she hadn’t been particularly interested at the time, but times have changed and she’s… well, Akhos would call her greedy, but Patroka would prefer the word _opportunistic._

Akhos was surprised when she had recently brought it up. Malos visibly didn’t give a shit. Jin frowned in disapproval but said nothing. So, here she is, here to lay her claim on Tantal’s most dangerous Blade and add it to her collection. Perdido spots the subtle inconsistency in the wall first and points it out accordingly. Whoever had bricked it up did a poor job of concealing the cracks.

She violently kicks at it, and the stones give way with a cloud of dust and little resistance.

“Stop!”

She doesn’t stop. She waves the dust away and catches a glimpse of the dark altar that had been hidden away, and whoever had arrived shouts again.

Patroka sighs with exaggerated annoyance and lazily turns.

“… Ohh. You’re the king, aren’t you?”

“Who— who are you?! What have you come here for?!” Eulogimenos, flanked by four guards, glares between Patroka and Perdido. Perdido readies himself, but pauses when Patroka extends a hand to him.

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m here for _that._ ”

“I can’t allow that!” Eulogimenos strikes through the air with an emphasized gesture, anger and fear crossed between his sweaty brows. “Do you have any idea what sort of monster had been sealed away in there?!”

“Uh, why else would I want it?” Patroka taps her chin with a finger. “By the way, aren’t _you_ supposed to have a Blade? Yeah, the one who’s said to have some control over Genbu. Where is she? I want that one, too.”

The king goes silent and falters, fists tightly clenched at his sides. His guards, in contrast, never waver, still focused on Patroka and ready to spring at the slightest signal. His silence only stretches on for a few more seconds before Patroka’s impatience gets the better of her.

“Ugh, forget it, I’ll just take this one. I don’t wanna spend any more time in this hellhole than I need to.”

“If you want that Blade, you’ll have to get through me,” Eulogimenos snarls.

Patroka nods to Perdido, and he begins to aggressively smash his weapons against the altar before the king can even react properly.

“—What?! Stop them! Hurry!”

The guards rush forward but Patroka and Perdido are ready. They smoothly switch places, and Perdido fends them off as she sifts through the rubble to pick out the Core Crystal.

Eulogimenos yells something else as the crystal glows in Patroka’s hand.

Patroka laughs.

An explosion knocks both Perdido and the guards back, and the entirety of the ruins seem to rumble beneath them. The dust is everywhere— in their eyes, in their ears, and Eulogimenos coughs between his wheezes as a hulking shape emerges from the center of the blast. It whirs with a mechanical hum. Herald lifts her head as awareness returns to her being, flexing the limbs of the mechsuit she’s encased in.

Oh, Architect, save them.

“… My name is Herald,” she says, serenely gazing down at Patroka.

“ _Nice._ ”

“Herald!” Eulogimenos shouts. “You musn’t— that woman is not meant to be your Driver! You cannot allow her to—“

Perdido, faster to regain his bearings than the guards, is already up on his feet. He strikes Eulogimenos with a bony wrist, effectively silencing him and sending him tumbling to the ground. He bows his head for a moment before turning to Patroka and her new Blade, contemplative even in the midst of the chaos and debris.

“What… is happening?” Herald looks between them each, uncertain. Her eyes settle on Patroka. “You _are_ my Driver, correct?”

Patroka nods, and reaches up to grab one of Herald’s hands in a tight grip.

“The name’s Patroka. I’m here to save you.”

Eulogimenos coughs and shouts from the ground, struggling to get up.

“The Tantalese are afraid, Herald,” Patroka says, full of plastic sincerity. “They killed your last Driver and sealed you up, all because they’re too _weak_  to stand up against you.”

"Lies...!" The king tries to voice his protests and the truth of the story, but Perdido threatens to strike him again— this time with his lance. His guards are still scattered and unmoving, incapacitated from the eruption of Herald’s awakening. They’ve already lost.

“I feel… a great power, residing within me,” Herald slowly says, staring at the hand that’s trapped in Patroka’s grip. “I only pray you can contain it.”

“Hah! Don’t worry about that part. You’ll get plenty of opportunities to let out that excess energy.”

Herald’s gaze turns to Eulogimenos, held at the end of Perdido’s lance, and all the unconscious guards. A troubled frown pulls at her features. “Who are they?”

“Just a bunch of nobodies.”

“Will we be disposing of them, Patroka?” Perdido asks, though there is clearly no joy nor anticipation in the question.

“Nah. Akhos would never let me hear the end of it if I started an international incident.”

“Hmph. What a shame for you…”

Herald, still plagued by that troubled frown, says nothing, only observes each face present. Her Driver is… her Driver is…

Even the most oblivious of Blades would surely be able to sense the immense power and _rage_ bubbling just beneath that surface of cruel indifference. She isn’t normal. Herald can tell that much. That power…

It almost reminds her of her own.

But, it isn’t like her own. She’d hardly been awake for five minutes and the world is still too new. She knows her name. She knows she is a Blade. She knows this feeling that sits so heavily in her chest— it’s guilt. But guilt over _what?_ What had she done? What had happened in these ruins they stand in? Why is the man on the ground looking at her like that?

“Hey! Herald!” Patroka is reaching up and snapping her fingers, too short to reach her face. Herald blinks back to attention. “We’re leaving.”

“… Why did you awaken me?”

“Because—“ She stares at Herald, and slowly looks to Eulogimenos and his expression of helpless anger and fear, and to Perdido’s silent vigil. Herald, too, almost looks afraid. Almost. Electricity crackles along the joints of her suit.

“Because I think you don’t deserve to be buried away like some kind of monster.”

A lie. But Herald readily accepts it. She hesitantly extends a hand, and the suit mimics the motion. Patroka lays her fingers upon Herald’s palm. Her real palm, not the mechanical one. This time, her grip is more gentle, feeding upon the lie and boring its way into Herald’s sense of security.

She smiles.

“Stop! _Herald!_ ” Eulogimenos rises unsteadily, wincing. “You weren’t meant to be awakened. We sealed your Core Crystal away for a just cause! You— you must believe me, when I say it was in everyone’s best interest—“

”I’ve had enough of your yapping, old man. Shut up, or I’ll make you shut up. Your choice.”

Herald knows it’s wrong. Something here is wrong. But Patroka’s hand is soft and warm in hers and even Perdido already looks less foreboding than before. That feeling of guilt won’t seem to go away, though. It’s not a very pleasant sensation.

Eulogimenos can only hang his head in shame as the intruders leave Theosoir with their country’s most dangerous Blade. If his son were still here, perhaps…

A snowstorm rages outside the gates. Herald, still lost in that daze of uncertainty, dutifully follows her new Driver through the snow, floating alongside Perdido as Patroka marches several paces ahead. It is… a Blade’s duty to serve one’s Driver. She remembers that much, at least. Or perhaps it's only instinct.

“Just do as she says, and all will be fine,” Perdido mutters to her.

“I understand.”

But she doesn’t, really, and the weight of that guilt within her chest only grows heavier the longer she stares at Patroka’s back.


End file.
